


restless wandering child

by natashalightwood



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst with an happy ending, Established Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Kinda, M/M, Multiverse, mentions of cheating, they're awful at communication but what else is new, tony thinks steve is cheating but he actually isn't
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:46:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25007164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/natashalightwood/pseuds/natashalightwood
Summary: Steve keeps disappearing for hours and hours and coming home with blatantly false excuses. Tony thinks he's cheating on him and just when he's about to confront him he finds out that truth is much different from what he imagined.Like,waydifferent.
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Comments: 9
Kudos: 152





	restless wandering child

The call went straight to voicemail once again. Tony sighed, checking his watch. By this time, they had totally lost their dinner reservations. Steve's tux sat untouched on their bed, so Tony picked it up to store it into their two-door wardrobe. 

The door opened and Steve sheepishly came in, looking like a lost puppy. 

"Where the hell have you been?" Tony asked harshly. "I've been trying to contact you for three hours!" 

"I know, I'm so so sorry, but I had a mishap at work and--" 

"I called you at work half an hour ago. Natasha said you weren't there." Tony interrupted. 

Steve's eyes widened comically but he quickly composed himself again, smiling reassuringly. "That's because I wasn't working from there today. I had to coordinate my art exhibition, remember?" 

"Must have slipped my mind" he murmured. He was sure Steve had never told him about an exhibition coming soon. 

Steve came closer taking his chin in his hand and raising it delicately to kiss him for a brief second. Tony didn't push him away, despite the anguish he felt. "I'm sorry for our date," Steve said, his eyes earnest. "Let me make it up to you. I'll cook tonight, whatever you want," 

The thing was, that this wasn't, by a long shot, the first time something like this had happened. Steve disappearing for hours without leaving any trace, his phone always off, no way of reaching him and then coming back home with lazy excuses for his absence. 

It wasn't that Tony wasn't worried that he had found someone else. Tony loathed himself way too much not to consider that a more than plausible option. He was _extremely_ worried and jealous out of his mind. 

But Tony was also very tired. That morning he had had to participate to a meeting with some of the most infuriating board members he had ever met in his entire long, meeting-filled life. And in all honesty a homemade dinner with his boyfriend sounded way better than arguing.

He swallowed his uneasiness and nodded at Steve with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.   
***  
It happened again. 

And again. 

And again. 

Three weeks later Tony threw two theater tickets in the trash, before storming out of the front the door. 

Or at least trying to storm out of the door, because, while making his dramatic exit, he ran right into Steve, holding a bouquet of lilies with the world's most contrite expression. 

"I'm sorr-" he started. 

"Save it." Tony raised a hand, gesturing to him to stop talking. He just didn't have the energy to hear any more excuses about problems at a workplace where he wasn't supposed to be and friends that were happily taking a vacation needing help. 

"I'm going out. Don't wait up." he informed him icily. He bumped Steve's shoulder and stormed off, away from him and his lies. He could hear him calling his name but he didn't turn back. 

He unlocked the car and went off without a destination.   
***  
He had been driving mindlessly for about two hours. The rage he had felt when he'd seen Steve's stupid remorseful eyes had expired quickly and now he just felt sorrow. He had always been prepared for this kind of situation. When someone like _him_ gets so lucky to end up with someone like _Steve_ it's just idiotic not to be. 

It was just that for a moment, for the tiniest fraction of a second, he had actually believed that he could be… enough. That he could make Steve as happy as he made him and they could live the rest of their lives making each other happy. 

_Stupid_. He told himself. _When will you stop believing in fairy tales?_

And now, he was in that car, driving in circles to avoid the reality of what was waiting for him at home. A break-up. Letting go of the only thing in his life worth waking up for. But tormenting himself with a wait longer than necessary wasn't doing him any good. 

He made a turn, and with every mile his heart shattered just a little bit more.   
***  
No amount of dwelling in his car could have ever prepared him from the sight he got when he entered from the front door. 

First, he saw Nick Fury standing in the middle of his living room. That alone would have been a good enough reason to panic. Fury hadn't paid him a visit since the day Howard had died. After that, he saw the man who had introduced himself as Agent Coulson about three months prior. He was wearing the same enigmatic (and annoyingly serene) smile. 

The presence of two other agents went completely unnoticed once he recognized the man sitting on his couch with wires attached to his temples as Steve. 

"Mr. Stark" greeted Fury. 

Steve's eyes snapped open, horror written all over his features and he tried to stand up, only to be pushed back by the sci-fi looking pieces of machinery he was stuck to. 

Tony would have laughed if he wasn't so completely out of his mind. 

"What the hell is going on here?" he demanded. 

"You want to tell him or should I, Steve?" said Coulson. Tony turned to Steve, his eyebrows lingering towards his hairline. 

" _Steve_? Seriously? Since when are you two on first-name basis? Actually, scratch that, since when do you two know each other?" 

Said man raised his hands in a placating manner. "Sweetheart, if you would just calm down for a moment--" 

"Don't sweetheart me! And don't tell me to calm down. If I don't get an explanation in the next two minutes-" 

"I'm a dimension traveler!" Steve blurted out. 

Tony stared at him. Then at the wires. Then he turned to Fury. Then back at him. 

And then he fainted.   
***

He felt like several performing monkeys were banging their dishes in his brain. He slowly regained consciousness, opening his eyes. 

Steve must have moved him on the couch. Fury and the other agents were gone. 

"Hey, love. How are you feeling? Does your head hurt?" Steve asked. His brows were furrowed and he looked tense. 

"Just a little bit" he hummed, raising himself to sitting position. Then he recalled the events right before he had decided to hug the floor and fixed his eyes into Steve's. 

"You," he said, pointing at his boyfriend, who winced, "have a lot to explain." 

"I know."

"Yeah." 

"Yeah…" 

"Like for starters, what the hell do you mean you're a dimension traveler?" 

Steve sighed and slouched for a moment before straightening his shoulders again, as if he was bracing himself from an impact. 

"I'm… not from here," he started. 

"You mean you're not from the U.S.? I thought you were born in Brooklyn," but even as the words were leaving his mouth he knew it was a stupid thing to say. Steve didn't laugh but he smiled softly. 

"No," he said gently, "I mean I'm not from this… universe, dimension, timeline, whatever you want to call it." he breathed out and it looked like he'd been holding that breath for centuries. When Tony just kept staring he took it as his cue to continue the story. 

"The first time I traveled here, in your dimension, it was my sixteenth birthday. I have no idea what caused it, but one minute I was in my room and the other I was here. And I was so excited because where I'm from my Ma is… gone." he paused for a moment, overwhelmed by emotions. 

"Really? Sarah's dead?" Tony had a fond place in his heart for Sarah Rogers. He could see a lot of her in Steve, and just like her son she was beautiful inside and out. The thought of her dead didn’t quite register in his head. 

Steve nodded. "Terminal illness. But she's fine here. Actually, she told me that the Steve from this dimension died of the same illness she did in mine. So it was a miracle for us both that we found each other. I don't know how I could have faced life without her." A tear was escaping Steve's long lashes. 

"Steve-" Tony attempted to come closer to comfort him, but Steve stopped him. 

"Nono. Let me finish, otherwise I'll crumble before my story is over." He backed off and made him a gesture to go on. 

"I had no idea how to control my dimension jumps. I still don't. They just happen in any moment and can last an hour as well as a whole day. That's why I sometimes disappear without leaving any trace." Tony felt a big, heavy weight lifting from his stomach. The absurdity of the situation was temporarily canceled by the relief that Steve hadn't fallen in love with somebody else. 

"When the Bucky of my original timeline died I felt like there was nothing that world could offer to me anymore. So I started thinking about my time there more like a punishment, something keeping me from where I wanted to be. That somehow caused the time I spent there to be reduced drastically to the point where I was here almost all the time,"

"But it was just when I met you that I realized that might be my birth universe, but this is where I belong. This is home." he said, his voice reduced to a whisper near the end. 

"But… what about the Tony Stark of the other universe? Have you two never met? Because if that's so his life really sucks," he tried to joke, but it only came out as painful. As if even thinking about a lifetime where Steve wasn't with him brought him an almost tangible wound. 

Steve shook his head a few times before locking eyes with Tony again,"Tony…" he started softly, "There's no other Tony Stark. In my birth universe you don't exist. That's how I know I was meant to stay here. I can't bear the thought of having to survive in a place where you can never be by my side," his voice broke and he forced himself to stop the tears escaping his eyes. Tony wanted to reach across the couch to hug him and never let him go. 

In the post-confession silence, Tony felt like someone had brushed away the clouds that had obscured his sight. Now that everything was clear, now that Steve could stop with the secrets and the lazy excuses, they could truly be happy. There was just one thing he still needed to know. 

"Why didn't you tell me before? You know that I thought you were cheating, right?" he asked. Steve sucked in a breath. Clearly he did know, but he still hated that his actions (or lack of thereof) had resulted in Tony convincing himself of something like this. 

"At first I didn't tell you because I didn't want to scare you away. You have to admit that's not exactly a conversation starter for a first date," Tony nodded, conceding his point. "After that, it was easy to go from 'too soon' to 'too late'. I was afraid you'd leave me because I lied to you. S.H.I.E.L.D. is trying to find a way to help me control the jumps, so that I can stay here without randomly disappearing for hours. I intended to tell you as soon as they found a solution." he finished, bowing his head. 

"Well, I _am_ deeply offended" said Tony. Steve bolted upright again, nodding with a miserable expression on his face. 

"I know," he said, "you have every right to be upset. I should have told you sooner, I get it if you want to- if you want to break up. I-I'll go now if…" Tony cupped Steve's face to stop his rambling. Now, up close, he had a better visual of the red circles around his boyfriend's azure eyes. 

"I meant," he started, "that if you had asked me to help you control the jumps, we would have already found a solution. Genius billionaire philanthropist, remember?" 

Tony waited a few long moments for Steve’s brain to stop processing. He opened and closed his mouth for a couple of times before shaking his head, even though his bewilderment was still highly visible. _Honestly_ , Tony thought, _Haven’t you figured out I’d do anything for you, by now_?

“You mean…” he said, slow and careful as if talking too hurriedly might have destroyed the fragile hope that was expanding in his chest, “you mean you want to help me?”

Tony’s face softened immediately and he caressed Steve’s cheekbone with his thumb. Steve leaned in his warmth and closed his eyes. 

“Of course I do” he whispered. “So you can fire Nick Fury whenever you want now, because-” but he didn’t get to finish his brilliant line about his superior intelligence, because he was cut off by Steve’s lips pressing on his, kissing him with the joy of a first and the urgency of a last. He felt acutely thankful this kiss was neither of those things.

“Thank you,” murmured Steve, “You have no idea how much this means to me.”

“I’ll always be here for you, darling.”

Later, two weeks later to be exact, Tony handed Steve his customized gadget that, he proclaimed proudly, was going to make sure he never jumped dimensions again unless he wanted to. And as he watched the relief spread over Steve’s face, Tony thanked whatever force in the universe (multiverse at this point?) had given Steve his abilities; because the thought of himself in a Steveless world was the most unimaginable concept he’d ever had to conceive in his entire life. And so he thanked, over and over again, that he was able to meet the extraordinaire man standing in front of him.

**Author's Note:**

> for anyone wondering why steve got the ability to dimension travel: i have no idea but i'm sure tony will figure it out
> 
> say hi on tumblr!  
> @natasha-lightwood


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